Experiential in Color Mentorship Q&A: Anna Nicholson and Melencia Lattimore -

In 2025, EM expanded the scope of its Experiential in Color recognition program to include a new mentorship initiative led by a steering committee of industry professionals. We spoke with three mentor/mentee pairs about what the experience has meant to them. First up, meet mentor Anna Nicholson and mentee Melencia Lattimore.

For Anna Nicholson, it’s a full-circle moment to be participating in the Experiential in Color Mentorship Program. In 2021, she was recognized in Experiential in Color’s first class of rising-star honorees. Four years later, Nicholson is now an event manager at Yahoo and is giving back to the industry, mentoring Melencia Lattimore, meeting coordinator at A-Plus Meetings & Incentives.

Lattimore never had a mentor before, but the opportunity to join the mentorship program felt right, as she was preparing to graduate with her master’s from the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. She was looking for support from an experienced mentor to make industry connections and reaffirm that events was the career path she wanted to follow, and Nicholson was the perfect match.

Event Marketer: How did you hear about the mentorship program, and what drew you to participate?

Anna Nicholson: I saw a post about it on LinkedIn, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is perfect.” I applied that day… Seeing this felt like a cool continuation from the first program where there were 10 of us who were honored, and we were just chatting, connecting and building our network. I was really encouraged seeing this because it felt like Event Marketer was doubling down on raising diverse voices and then also finding a space for us to be able to connect. I was excited about the opportunity.

Melencia Lattimore: I decided to go back to grad school for event management, and my professor mentioned the mentorship program and that there was a chance at a free trip to Vegas if you get selected. So, I thought I may as well apply because my whole point of going back to school was that I wanted to take advantage of any opportunity that I could. Securing a full-time job was very important to me, so through mentorship, I thought it would be a good way to make connections and put myself out there.

EM: Going into the program, what were you hoping to take away from the experience?

ML: At the time, I wasn’t quite sure where in events I wanted to go. I was familiar with corporate events, but this was my opportunity to partner with someone who was in a different industry, because I wasn’t too familiar with experiential. Through this, I wanted to be sure exactly what path I wanted to take.

AN: Mentorship is extremely important. As I was entering this program, I was at the tail end of a nine-month mentorship program where I was the mentee. My previous mentor was mainly focused on women in leadership, not necessarily diversity, and I feel like I learned a lot. So, I thought this would be a way to pay it forward and also have the experience of being a mentor versus being a mentee. It’s important to be able to share, not only my wealth of knowledge from an experiential lens, but my network, too. Mentorship goes both ways. I’m also learning so much from Mel.

EM: What was your initial meeting like as a mentor/ mentee pair?

ML: Usually when I first meet someone, it feels like, “OK, I don’t know what to do next.” But with you, Anna, everything flowed casually, and we were both interested in what each other had going on. It was very natural, and I felt comfortable talking to someone who looks like me. That was important to me, too.

AN: Yes, totally. It was so natural and like we were friends who were just catching up. From the jump, they did a great job of understanding our applications that we submitted, and I think they paired us really well because there are so many things that we have in common.

ML: We’re both Aquariuses. Our birthdays are just a few days apart.

AN: We had an excited energy going into our first meeting, where we talked about goals and what Mel was hoping to get out of this. After that, we met for the first time at EMS, but we had put a plan together for three to four months of trying to focus on what some of her goals were. Every time we meet, the hour flies by, so we’re a good pair.

“It’s important to be able to share, not only my wealth of knowledge from an experiential lens, but my network, too. Mentorship goes both ways.”

–Anna Nicholson, Event Manager, Yahoo

EM: How often do you meet, and what do these meetings look like?

AN: Right after our first time, we set a recurring meeting once a month, and we’ll shift it if we need to, like one time we moved it because we were both traveling. It’s important to have that consistent cadence and accountability. Melencia does an awesome job coming every time with what she wants to talk about and following up from the last month. It works because we’re both committed to her growth and development in this program.

ML: One of the first things that we worked on was developing a personal brand statement, and to do that, Anna suggested that I reach out to my friends and ask them to describe me and the qualities I have. In doing that activity, it was very reassuring to get feedback and feel more confident when I talk about myself to other people. Through my interview process for the job that I currently have, Anna was supportive and reassuring. She helped me practice how I can talk about my experience. It was very helpful to go through that with her.

AN: It’s so great because that’s the ethos of this program, getting more people who look like us into experiential, so I feel so fortunate that I could help. It’s nice to have an outside perspective, because in our meetings, we would talk about certain things that she was working on, whether that be in school or study abroad, and I would suggest how that example shows she’s solution-oriented for interview questions that may come up. Or, we looked at the job description and tried to think about certain experiences she could speak to. I’m so glad that she landed the job, and she’s doing wonderful there.

EM: Anna, you mentioned you met each other in person at the Experiential Marketing Summit in April. What was that experience like?

AN: It worked out great that I got to go to Las Vegas, and Melencia was one of the hosted mentees. EMS was an awesome experience. We learned so much and got to walk around the show floor. We were pretty intentional with what we wanted to do, the sessions we wanted to sit in and the vendors we wanted to hit.

That was my first EMS, so it was neat to be able to experience that with her, but also with the broader Experiential in Color program, too. During the mixer, we met so many people. Every time we turned around, there was a new person to talk to. Being surrounded by so many people who looked like us in the same industry was really powerful.

“Anna’s support has given me confidence when it comes to speaking about myself and being proud of the things that I’ve done.”

–Melencia Lattimore, Meeting Coordinator, A-Plus Meetings & Incentives

EM: What have you learned from this partnership so far?

ML: Anna’s support has given me confidence when it comes to speaking about myself and being proud of the things that I’ve done. She also recommended in my current job that I start a “You go, girl” folder where I can put positive feedback someone’s given me, and it’s something that I can go back to and reflect on.

AN: Oh, I love hearing that. After EMS, I asked, “What was one of your biggest takeaways?” And Melencia said, “That what I want is not out of reach,” and I just thought that was so incredible. It was a reminder to me that if you’re committed, you’re diligent and you have a great support system, you can, honestly, achieve anything. I have learned that from you, and it’s really cool to see you tick off so many things since we started in March. We just have to go after it.